Man Returned From Guatemala Pleads No Contest to Voluntary Manslaughter

A man who hid out in Guatemala for seven years after beating another man to death with a metal pipe pleaded no contest today to voluntary manslaughter.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Drew Edwards immediately sentenced Sergio Giovanny Ruano, 37, to 11 years in state prison, according to Deputy District Attorney Ian Phan.

Ruano got into a fight on April 25, 2004, with the 25-year-old victim, Jorge Candia Gonzalez, in the 1200 block of West 39th Street, near an apartment building where both men lived at the time, authorities said.

Some witnesses said the victim was armed with a bat and shattered the windshield of Ruano's car, where the defendant's girlfriend was sitting.

Ruano walked to his car at some point during the fight, retrieved a metal pipe and hit Gonzalez several times in the head with it, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Gonzalez died at a hospital.

Ruano -- who was named in an April 2004 warrant -- was arrested in Guatemala in May 2011 and returned to Los Angeles by the FBI in March 2012.

- From City News Service

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